Ukrainian army will take five years to rearm

A round table discussion on the Ukrainian Army’s rearmament has been held by the National Security and Defense Committee of the Verkhovna Rada.

KYIV (QHA) -

Today saw Sergey Pashinskiy, MP, and Dmitry Tymchuk, Information Resistance representative, take part in a round table discussion on the Ukrainian Army’s rearmament.

“Our army has been destroyed for more than 20 years. Yanukovych simply drove the last nail in the coffin left behind by his predecessors. Ukraine, which used to be in the top ten of major arms exporters, has no weapons to fight an aggressor with now,” the MP said referring to the situation in the armed forces.

Pashinskiy also said that no defense projects have been submitted for debate in the Verkhovna Rada since 2014. “Unless we change our approach to reforming Ukrainian military forces, we will never be able to win a hybrid war. Since the majority of the cannons are twenty years old, we need to start off by launching an upgrade program,” the MP concluded.

The subject of numerous Ukrainian factories, standing idle but capable of giving the defense industry a boost, was also touched upon at the press conference. Those in attendance reached the conclusion that the long-awaited peace might only be secured through giving an impetus to the defense industry. The experts in attendance focused on the two problems our army is facing now, i.e. bureaucracy and Soviet-era approach to providing soldiers with weapons. The problems are aggravated by the bureaucrats’ inefficiency, which further contributes to the soldiers’ despair. Cited as an example was the South African Republic, which, like Ukraine, gave up its nuclear weapons in the early 90s, but continued to work in the military sector and succeeded in bolstering ties with European partners by improving defense systems.

They concluded the meeting by agreeing on the need to boost Ukraine’s defense potential, the top priority being development of deterrent weapons. It was also suggested that Dnepropetrovsk-based Yuzhmash factory design a missile system in conditions of stiff austerity. Thanks to the project, Dnepropetrovsk might regain its former ‘space city’ glory.